BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- At the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute, the last gallery that people see tries to connect the civil rights
struggles in Alabama with the wider human rights movement around the world --
from historical events like Gandhi, Solidarity and Johannesburg, to contemporary
challenges this year like the Arab spring street uprisings and the recent Congo
elections.

That link has greater
significance today, the anniversary of the 1948 signing of the Declarations of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This afternoon at the institute, archivist Laura Anderson is greeting visitors in
the institute's gallery of human rights to share how Birmingham's intensely
local civil rights protest shares a sense of force and purpose with other human
rights struggles around the world.

"It's about more than the declaration of human
rights," she said. "To me it's a celebration of the human spirit, and what the
human spirit can accomplish when there is courage and will."

Visitors will also be able to learn, from 2 to
4 p.m., about a recent student exchange
between Birmingham and South Africa, and hear a poetry project by poet/musician
Sharrif Simmons and students from Birmingham's Hudson K-8 School, from 4 to
5 p.m.